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HP Takes AI Leadership to the Next Level

HP Inc. today introduced two new innovations—the world's highest performance AI PC and the first integration of a trust framework into an AI model development platform. Both announcements expand HP's efforts to make AI real for companies and people with new and transformative AI experiences across the company's PCs, software, and partner ecosystem.

HP is empowering everyone, from corporate knowledge workers to freelancers and students, to unlock the power of AI. Users can connect with anyone in the world with real time translation to 40 languages, become master presenters with their personal communication coach, and quickly create videos like a pro.

2.1 Billion Pixels in Las Vegas Sphere are Powered by 150 NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPUs

The city of Las Vegas late last year added another attraction to its town: the Sphere. The Sphere is a 1.2 million pixel outdoor display venue famous for its massive size and inner 18,600-seat auditorium. The auditorium space is a feat of its own with features like a 16x16 resolution wraparound interior LED screen, speakers with beamforming and wave field synthesis technologies, and 4D physical effects. However, we have recently found out that NVIDIA GPUs power the Sphere. And not only a handful of them, as 150 NVIDIA RTX A6000 power the Sphere and its 1.2 million outside pixels spread on 54,000 m², as well as 16 of 16K inner displays with a total output of 2.1 billion pixels. Interestingly, the 150 NVIDIA RTX A6000 have a combined output cable number of 600 DisplayPort 1.4a ports.

With each card having 48 GB of memory, that equals to 7.2 TB of GDDR6 ECC memory in the total system. With the Sphere being a $2.3 billion project, it is expected to have an infotainment system capable of driving the massive venue. And it certainly delivers on that. Only a handful of cards powers most massive media projects, but this scale is something we see for the first time in non-AI processing systems. The only scale we are used to today is massive thousand-GPU clusters used for AI processing, so seeing a different and interesting application is refreshing.

Moore Threads MTLink Scales Up to 10,000 Home-Grown GPUs in AI Cluster

Chinese GPU manufacturer Moore Threads has announced a significant upgrade to its KUAE data center server. The company now has the ability to connect up to 10,000 GPUs in a single cluster, marking a huge leap in its scale-out capabilities for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing applications. The enhanced KUAE server incorporates eight MTT S4000 GPUs, leveraging Moore Threads' proprietary MTLink interconnect technology. These GPUs, based on the MUSA architecture, each feature 128 tensor cores and 48 GB of GDDR6 memory, delivering a bandwidth of 768 GB/s. While the full performance metrics of a 10,000-GPU cluster remain undisclosed, the sheer scale of 1,280,000 tensor cores suggests decent computing potential. Moore Threads' GPUs currently lag behind NVIDIA's GPU offerings in terms of performance. However, the company claims its MTT S4000 remains competitive against certain NVIDIA models, particularly in large language model training and inference tasks.

The Chinese company is facing significant challenges due to its inclusion on the U.S. Department of Commerce's Entity List, restricting access to advanced manufacturing processes. Despite these obstacles, the firm has secured partnerships with major Chinese state-run telecom operators and technology companies, focusing on developing new computing cluster projects. A recent financing round raised approximately $343.7 million will help Moore Threads' ambitious expansion plans. However, limited access to cutting-edge semiconductor fabrication technologies may constrain the company's future growth. Nonetheless, creating a scale-out server infrastructure with up to 10,000 GPUs is vital for LLM training and inference, especially as Chinese AI labs catch up to Western labs in terms of the performance of their AI models.

DRAM Prices Expected to Increase by 8-13% in Q3

TrendForce reports that a recovery in demand for general servers—coupled with an increased production share of HBM by DRAM suppliers—has led suppliers to maintain their stance on hiking prices. As a result, the ASP of DRAM in the third quarter is expected to continue rising, with an anticipated increase of 8-13%. The price of conventional DRAM is expected to rise by 5-10%, showing a slight contraction compared to the increase in the second quarter.

TrendForce notes that buyers were more conservative about restocking in the second, and inventory levels on both the supplier and buyer sides did not show significant changes. Looking ahead to the third quarter, there is still room for inventory replenishment for smartphones and CSPs, and the peak season for production is soon to commence. Consequently, it is expected that smartphones and servers will drive an increase in memory shipments in the third quarter.

ASUS Intros Radeon RX 6500 XT DUAL OC V2 Edition Graphics Card

ASUS introduced the Radeon RX 6500 XT DUAL OC V2 graphics card. This is the company's second DUAL branded RX 6500 XT product, the original has a similar appearance, and identical dimensions of 201 mm x 128 mm x 40 mm (length x height x thickness). ASUS has done away with the tiny addressable RGB lighting that the original had. While the new card has an aluminium fin-stack heatsink, its design is slightly different from that of the original. It still uses a single 6 mm-thick heatpipe that makes direct contact with the GPU at the base.

The factory overclock is unchanged between the two cards—2820 MHz boost and 2670 MHz Game clock, compared to AMD reference speeds of 2610 MHz boost and 2310 MHz Game clock. The memory speed is unchanged from the reference spec, at 18 Gbps (GDDR6-effective). Based on the 6 nm "Navi 24" silicon, the RX 6500 XT has all 1,024 stream processors present on the chip enabled. This card gets 4 GB of GDDR6 memory across the GPU's 64-bit memory interface. It draws power from a single 6-pin PCIe power connector. Display outputs include one each of DisplayPort 1.4a and HDMI 2.1.

ASRock Intros Radeon RX 6400 Low Profile Graphics Card

ASRock expanded its entry level graphics card lineup with a new low-profile Radeon RX 6400 graphics card. Such a card had been missing in ASRock's lineup, as its only RX 6400 product had been the full-height RX 6400 Challenger, a product design it shared with the RX 6500 XT Challenger OC. This new RX 6400 Low Profile card isn't just half-height (low-profile), but also single-slot, and relies entirely on the PCIe slot for power.

The card's design involves a simple extruded aluminium heatsink ventilated by a 40 mm fan, with the interesting inclusion of idle fan-stop (something other low-profile cards in this segment tend to lack). The card is 150 mm long, and 68.9 mm tall. Out of the box, it comes with the low-profile bracket installed, but a full height bracket is included in the package. Based on the 6 nm "Navi 24" silicon, the RX 6400 is configured 768 stream processors across 12 compute units, and 4 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 64-bit wide memory interface. The company didn't announce pricing.

Gigabyte Launches AMD Radeon PRO W7000 Series Graphics Cards

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of premium gaming hardware, today launched the cutting-edge AMD Radeon PRO W7000 series workstation graphics cards, including the flagship GIGABYTE Radeon PRO W7900 Dual Slot AI TOP 48G as well as the GIGABYTE Radeon PRO W7800 AI TOP 32G. Powered by AMD RDNA 3 architecture, these graphics cards offer a massive 48 GB and 32 GB of GDDR6 memory, respectively, delivering cutting-edge performance and exceptional experiences for workstation professionals, creators and AI developers.⁠⁠

GIGABYTE stands as the AMD professional graphics partner in the market, with a proven ability to design and manufacture the entire Radeon PRO series. Our dedication to quality products, unwavering business commitment, and comprehensive customer service empower us to deliver professional-grade GPU solutions, expanding user's choices in workstation and AI computing.

ASRock Intros Radeon RX 6500 XT 8GB Phantom Gaming

ASRock this week introduced the Radeon RX 6500 XT 8 GB Phantom Gaming graphics card. The RX 6500 XT comes with a reference memory size of 4 GB over the tiny 64-bit GDDR6 memory bus of the "Navi 24" silicon it's based on, but ASRock decided to double this, probably using high-density 32 Gbit memory chips, or two sets of 16 Gbit chips piggybacking each other. The card is spruced up with Phantom Gaming styling, is 24 cm long, standard height, and 2 slots thick. The cooling solution features an aluminium fin-stack heatsink that's ventilated by a pair of fans. Power is drawn from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. Display outputs include one each of DisplayPort 1.4, and HDMI 2.1 with VRR. This isn't the first RX 6500 XT with 8 GB, Sapphire has had an 8 GB Pulse graphics card in its lineup for a while now. ASRock didn't reveal the pricing of this card.

SK Hynix Targets Q1 2025 for GDDR7 Memory Mass Production

The race is on for memory manufacturers to bring the next generation GDDR7 graphics memory into mass production. While rivals Samsung and Micron are aiming to have GDDR7 chips available in Q4 of 2024, South Korean semiconductor giant SK Hynix revealed at Computex 2024 that it won't kick off mass production until the first quarter of 2025. GDDR7 is the upcoming JEDEC standard for high-performance graphics memory, succeeding the current GDDR6 and GDDR6X specifications. The new tech promises significantly increased bandwidth and capacities to feed the appetites of next-wave GPUs and AI accelerators. At its Computex booth, SK Hynix showed off engineering samples of its forthcoming GDDR7 chips, with plans for both 16 Gb and 24 Gb densities.

The company is targeting blazing-fast 40 Gbps data transfer rates with its GDDR7 offerings, outpacing the 32 Gbps rates its competitors are starting with on 16 Gb parts. If realized, higher speeds could give SK Hynix an edge, at least initially. While trailing a quarter or two behind Micron and Samsung isn't ideal, SK Hynix claims having working samples now validates its design and allows partners to begin testing and qualification. Mass production timing for standardized memories also doesn't necessarily indicate a company is "late" - it simply means another vendor secured an earlier production window with a specific customer. The GDDR7 transition is critical for SK Hynix and others, given the insatiable demand for high-bandwidth memory to power AI, graphics, and other data-intensive workloads. Hitting its stated Q1 2025 mass production target could ensure SK Hynix doesn't fall too far behind in the high-stakes GDDR7 race, with faster and higher-density chips to potentially follow shortly after volume ramp.

First NVIDIA RTX 5090 Performance View? Micron Knows Better

Micron is getting ready to set sail with the new GDDR7 memory, and being NVIDIA's long-term partner, both are gaining big with the GeForce RTX 4000 Series. A few days ago, Micron announced its imminent launch of GDDR7 memory, remember that in March JEDEC published the GDDR7 memory standard. The interesting part is that an even more important piece of information was provided in one of Micron's slide-deck, the one that shows GDDR7 gaming performance. Officially Micron says that GDDR7 can be 3.1x faster than GDDR6 and 1.5x faster than GDDR6X. However, the slide in question provides some normalized FPS performance for ray tracing, and rasterization under game testing conditions. Until now, everything is clear, what comes next is our speculation and assumptions, based on previous knowledge so please, take it with a grain of salt. Will it be a hard guess, looking over those graphs, to tell that NVIDIA's RTX 5090 offers up to a 42% improvement over the RTX 4090 in rasterization, and up to 48% in ray tracing?

NVIDIA is getting closer to releasing its next-gen GPU with the RTX 5090 graphics card. Micron is in a strong partnership with NVIDIA and it's expected that its next gen graphics cards will use Micron GDDR7 memory. Now, we know that, at least for Ray Tracing, one real-world benchmark is Cyberpunk 2077, and it could be also the case here, from the graphs it looks very much like Ray Tracing was tested with Path Tracing. For Rasterization performance another hard guess is that perhaps it's either Starfield or Assassin's Creed Mirage. Presumably, tests were made using also AMD RX 7900XTX, and NVIDIA RTX 4090 to get GDDR6 reference. Time will tell if we made the right prediction.

Hands On with the Only Radeon RX 7900 XTX Model that has 12V-2x6 Power Connector

At Computex 2024, we went hands-on with the only custom-design AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card to implement the 16-pin 12V-2x6 power connector. We've written quite a bit about this card, but weren't expecting it to be this long. This isn't just the only RX 7900 XTX with a 12V-2x6, but also the only air-cooled RX 7900 XTX that's strictly 2 slots-thick. ASRock made this card for graphics rendering farms, or AI development/inferencing builds, in which a GPU server would have 4-6 of these packed like sardines. The lateral blower helps ensure proper ventilation. The backplate is recessed to ensure better ventilation to the neighboring card.

The card sticks to AMD reference clock speeds of 2270 MHz Game clock, and 20 Gbps (GDDR6-effective) memory speed. ASRock also gave us a technical deep-dive into the card's design. For one, it's confirmed that the power connector is 12V-2x6 (H++) and not 12VHPWR. The cooling solution consists of a large copper vapor-chamber plate that makes contact with the GPU, memory, and VRM; conveying heat to an aluminium channel heatsink, which is ventilated by a high-speed lateral blower. The cooler shroud and backplate are both made of aluminium.

Colorful Intros iGame Ultra/Vulkan PC Series of White/Black Components

At Computex 2024, Colorful has introduced a new PC series of premium componentry for games, called iGame Ultra Series. Carrying a premium white aesthetics, the Ultra Series serves as clean and elegant component for PC builds. At the heart of the Ultra Series is the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER graphics card. The card has a triple-fan cooling solution with vapor chamber technology that keeps temperatures under control. Powering this GPU is the iGame Z790D5 Ultra motherboard. Supporting the latest Intel 14th Gen CPUs and up to 192 GB of DDR5-7800 RAM. An array of ultra-fast PCIe 5.0 and 4.0 M.2 slots allow multiple high-speed SSDs for ridiculous storage performance. Keeping all of these elite components running is the 850 W iGame P850G Ultra W 80 Plus Gold power supply. Its modular design with dedicated PCIe 5.0 connectors ensures clean cable management and stable power delivery. For cooling the CPU, there is the iGame LQ360 Ultra W all-in-one liquid cooler, which sports a massive 360 mm radiator and a trio of high-static pressure fans. All of these premium components are housed in the iGame C23A Ultra W full-tower chassis. With a spacious dual-compartment layout, front USB-C port, and preinstalled vertical GPU bracket, it offers both incredible expandability and sleek aesthetics.

XFX Launches Phoenix Nirvana Series Radeon RX Graphics Cards in White

XFX earlier this month debuted the Phoenix Nirvana line of premium custom-design Radeon RX 7900 series graphics cards with the China-exclusive RX 7900 XTX Phoenix Nirvana. The company is expanding this lineup with two new models, both of which are draped in white. These are the company's first white-themed graphics cards. The lineup now includes the Radeon RX 7800 XT Phoenix Nirvana White, and the RX 7900 GRE Phoenix Nirvana White. Both cards appear to share a common board design, because the compacted "Navi 31" ASIC powering the RX 7900 GRE is pin-compatible with the "Navi 32" ASIC that the RX 7800 XT is based on. Since both GPUs feature a 256-bit GDDR6 memory interface, and a nearly identical typical board power value of around 260 W, AMD's board partners get to use their RX 7800 XT custom board designs for RX 7900 GRE products.

The XFX RX 7900 GRE Phoenix Nirvana White features a significantly different board design to the company's Merc 319 product that's available in the west. The heatsink is noticeably larger, the cooler shroud appears better ventilated, and XFX is using thicker 100 mm fans for higher static pressure than from the ones you find in the global Merc 319 card. The most striking design element of course is its color trim. White makes up the cooler shroud, the fan impellers, and the backplate. The heatsink protrudes out of the edges of the black PCB that's barely noticeable. The card is 33.7 cm long, and 5.9 cm-thick, with a 13.2 cm height. The RX 7900 GRE Phoenix Nirvana White comes with a hearty 6.7% factory overclock, with a 2394 MHz boost clock (vs. 2245 MHz reference); while the RX 7800 XT Phoenix Nirvana White ticks AMD reference 2430 MHz boost. Both these cards, unfortunately, are China-exclusive products, just like the RX 7900 XTX card XFX launched earlier this month.

Aetina Accelerates Embedded AI with High-performance, Small Form-factor Aetina IA380E-QUFL Graphics Card

Aetina, a leading Edge AI solution provider, announced the launch of the Aetina IA380E-QUFL at Embedded World 2024 in Nuremberg, Germany. This groundbreaking product is a small form factor PCIe graphics card powered by the high-performance Intel Arc A380E GPU.

Unmatched Power in a Compact Design
The Aetina IA380E-QUFL delivers workstation-level performance packed into a low-profile, single-slot form factor. This innovative solution consumes only 50 W, making it ideal for space and power-constrained edge computing environments. Embedded system manufacturers and integrators can leverage the power of 4.096 TFLOPs peak FP32 performance delivered by the Intel Arc A380E GPU.

AMD's RDNA 4 GPUs Could Stick with 18 Gbps GDDR6 Memory

Today, we have the latest round of leaks that suggest that AMD's upcoming RDNA 4 graphics cards, codenamed the "RX 8000-series," might continue to rely on GDDR6 memory modules. According to Kepler on X, the next-generation GPUs from AMD are expected to feature 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory, marking the fourth consecutive RDNA architecture to employ this memory standard. While GDDR6 may not offer the same bandwidth capabilities as the newer GDDR7 standard, this decision does not necessarily imply that RDNA 4 GPUs will be slow performers. AMD's choice to stick with GDDR6 is likely driven by factors such as meeting specific memory bandwidth requirements and cost optimization for PCB designs. However, if the rumor of 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory proves accurate, it would represent a slight step back from the 18-20 Gbps GDDR6 memory used in AMD's current RDNA 3 offerings, such as the RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX GPUs.

AMD's first generation RDNA used GDDR6 with 12-14 Gbps speeds, RDNA 2 came with GDDR6 at 14-18 Gbps, and the current RDNA 3 used 18-20 Gbps GDDR6. Without an increment in memory generation, speeds should stay the same at 18 Gbps. However, it is crucial to remember that leaks should be treated with skepticism, as AMD's final memory choices for RDNA 4 could change before the official launch. The decision to use GDDR6 versus GDDR7 could have significant implications in the upcoming battle between AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel's next-generation GPU architectures. If AMD indeed opts for GDDR6 while NVIDIA pivots to GDDR7 for its "Blackwell" GPUs, it could create a disparity in memory bandwidth performance between the competing products. All three major GPU manufacturers—AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel with its "Battlemage" architecture—are expected to unveil their next-generation offerings in the fall of this year. As we approach these highly anticipated releases, more concrete details on specifications and performance capabilities will emerge, providing a clearer picture of the competitive landscape.

BIOSTAR Becomes an Intel Arc Board Partner, Introduces Arc A750 OC Graphics Card

BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices today, is thrilled to introduce the brand-new Intel Arc A750 OC Graphics card. BIOSTAR proudly presents the Arc A750 OC graphics card, a true game-changer for content creators and professional gamers. It is meticulously designed to cater to a wide range of computing needs, seamlessly accommodating content creation and gaming at every level. The Arc A750 OC graphics card harnesses the cutting-edge Intel Arc graphics technology, offering a unique blend of unmatched performance and innovative features that sets it apart in the competitive market.

With its impressive 28 Xe-Cores and a graphics clock speed of 2200 MHz, the BIOSTAR Arc A750 OC is a powerhouse designed to deliver robust gaming and content creation performance. It comes packed with a substantial 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, operating at a lightning-fast speed of 16 Gbps, and utilizes a 256-bit memory interface for efficient data transfer and processing. With a total board power (TBP) of 225 W, this graphics card is engineered to balance power consumption with high-end performance, making it an exciting option for users looking for a powerful yet efficient GPU solution.

Suppliers Aim to Raise Contract Prices, But With Uncertain Demand, 2Q24 DRAM Price Increase Expected to Narrow to 3-8%

TrendForce's latest report reveals that despite DRAM suppliers' efforts to trim inventories, they have yet to reach healthy ranges. As they continue to improve their lose situations by boosting capacity utilization rates, the overall demand outlook for this year remains tepid. Additionally, significant price increases by suppliers since 4Q23 are expected to further diminish the momentum for inventory restocking. As a result, DRAM contract prices for the second quarter are projected to see a modest increase of 3-8%.

The shift toward DDR5-compatible CPUs is set to drive an increase in PC DRAM demand in the second quarter. As manufacturers move toward more advanced, cost-efficient production processes for DDR5, their profitability is expected to rise significantly. This anticipation of higher DRAM prices in 1H24 has led to suppliers to aim for price increases in Q2, targeting a 3-8% hike in PC DRAM contract prices. Notably, even though DDR5 prices have already seen a notable rise in Q1—exceeding the average increase for other products—the expected emergence of AI PC demand may lead to a slight moderation in DDR5 price increases in Q2.

AMD 24.3.1 Drivers Unlock RX 7900 GRE Memory OC Limits, Additional Performance Boost Tested

Without making much noise, AMD lifted the memory overclocking limits of the Radeon RX 7900 GRE graphics card with its latest Adrenalin 24.3.1 WHQL drivers, TechPowerUp found. The changelog is a bit vague and states "The maximum memory tuning limit may be incorrectly reported on AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE graphics products."—we tested it. The RX 7900 GRE has been around since mid-2023, but gained prominence as the company gave it a global launch in February 2024, to help AMD better compete with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super. Before this, the RX 7900 GRE had started out its lifecycle as a special edition product confined to China, and its designers had ensured that it came with just the right performance positioning that didn't end up disrupting other products in the AMD stack. One of these limitations had to do with the memory overclocking potential, which was probably put in place to ensure that the RX 7900 GRE has a near-identical total board power as the RX 7800 XT.

Shortly after the global launch of the RX 7900 GRE, and responding to drama online, AMD declared the limited memory overclocking range a bug and promised a fix. The overclocking limits are defined in the graphics card VBIOS, so increasing those limits would mean shipping BIOS updates for over a dozen SKUs from all the major vendors, and requiring users to upgrade it by themselves. Such a solution isn't very practical, so AMD implemented a clock limit override in their new drivers, which reprograms the power limits on the GPU during boot-up. Nicely done, good job AMD!

Sony PlayStation 5 Pro Details Emerge: Faster CPU, More System Bandwidth, and Better Audio

Sony is preparing to launch its next-generation PlayStation 5 Pro console in the Fall of 2024, right around the holidays. We previously covered a few graphics details about the console. However, today, we get more details about the CPU and the overall system, thanks to the exclusive information from Insider Gaming. Starting off, the sources indicate that PS5 Pro system memory will get a 28% bump in bandwidth, where the standard PS5 console had 448 GB/s, and the upgraded PS5 Pro will get 576 GB/s. Apparently, the memory system is more efficient, likely coming from an upgrade in memory from the GDDR6 SDRAM of the regular PS5. The next upgrade is the CPU, which has special modes for the main processor. The CPU uArch is likely the same, with clocks pushed to 3.85 GHz, resulting in a 10% frequency increase.

However, this is only achieved in the "High CPU Frequency Mode," which steals the SoC's power from the GPU and downclocks it slightly to allocate more power to the CPU in highly CPU-intense settings. The GPU we discussed here is an RDNA 3 IP with up to 45% faster graphics rendering. The ray tracing performance can be up to four times higher than the regular PS5, while the entire GPU delivers 33.5 TeraFLOPS of FP32 single-precision computing. This comes from 30 WGP running BVH8 shaders vs the 18 WGPs running BVH4 shaders on the regular PS5. There are PSSR upscalers present, and the GPU can output 8K resolution, which will come with future software updates. Last but not least, the AI front also has a custom AI accelerator capable of 300 8-bit INT8 TOPS and 67 16-bit FP16 TeraFLOPS. Audio codecs are getting some love, as well, with ACV running up to 35% faster.

16 GB Memory Mod of Radeon RX 5600 XT Adds 29% Performance

The mid-range AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT is not supposed to have 16 GB of video memory, but the same hardware modders from Brazil behind the recent GeForce RTX 2080 16 GB mod, had other ideas for the card. They have not only increased the memory size to 16 GB through memory chip replacement, but also succeeded in widening its memory bus to 256-bit. The RX 5600 XT was launched in 2018 with 6 GB of 14 Gbps GDDR6 memory over a 192-bit memory interface. The card is cut down from the 7 nm "Navi 10" silicon powering the RX 5700 series, by enabling 36 out of 40 compute units (the same count as the RX 5700), but with a truncated 192-bit memory bus wired to 6 GB of memory (and so 25% lower memory bandwidth).

Paulo Gomes and Ronaldo Buassali pulled off the daring Radeon RX 5600 XT memory mod, which involves not just increasing the memory size from 6 GB to 16 GB, but also widening the memory bus from 192-bit to 256-bit. Since the RX 5600 XT is based on the same "Navi 10" GPU as the RX 5700, custom-design graphics cards tend to reuse PCB designs from the RX 5700 series, and have two vacant memory pads that are sometimes exposed and even balled. The mod involves three key stages—to replace the six 8 Gbit GDDR6 memory chips with eight 16 Gbit ones; to add the required electrical SMDs and VRM components for the two additional memory chips; and lastly, to give the card a modified BIOS that can let it play with the new memory configuration. The "Navi 10" silicon also powers certain Radeon Pro graphics cards with 16 GB of memory using 16 Gbit memory chips, so that could be the starting point for the BIOS mod.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" to use 28 Gbps GDDR7 Memory Speed

The first round of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" graphics cards that implement GDDR7 memory are rumored to come with a memory speed of 28 Gbps, according to kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA leaks. This is despite the fact that the first GDDR7 memory chips will be capable of 32 Gbps speeds. NVIDIA will also stick with 16 Gbit densities for the GDDR7 memory chips, which means memory sizes could remain largely unchanged for the next generation; with the 28 Gbps GDDR7 memory chips providing 55% higher bandwidth over 18 Gbps GDDR6 and 33% higher bandwidth than 21 Gbps GDDR6X. It remains to be seen what memory bus widths NVIDIA chooses for its individual SKUs.

NVIDIA's decision to use 28 Gbps as its memory speeds has some precedent in recent history. The company's first GPUs to implement GDDR6, the RTX 20-series "Turing," opted for 14 Gbps speeds despite 16 Gbps GDDR6 chips being available. 28 Gbps is exactly double that speed. Future generations of GeForce RTX GPUs, or even refreshes within the RTX 50-series could see NVIDIA opt for higher memory speeds such as 32 Gbps. When the standard debuts, companies like Samsung even plan to put up fast 36 Gbps chips. Besides a generational doubling in speeds, GDDR7 is more energy-efficient as it operates at lower voltages than GDDR6. It also uses a more advanced PAM3 physical layer signaling compared to NRZ for JEDEC-standard GDDR6.

First GPUs Implementing GDDR7 Memory Could Stick with 16 Gbit Chips, 24 Gbit Possible

Some of the first gaming GPUs that implement the next-generation GDDR7 memory standard, will stick to 16 Gbit memory chip densities (2 GB), according to kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA GeForce leaks. 16 Gbit is what is standard for the current RTX 40-series graphics cards, which ensures that a GPU with 256-bit memory bus gets 16 GB of video memory; the ones with 192-bit get 12 GB; and the ones with 128-bit get 8 GB. The flagship RTX 4090 uses twelve of these chips over its 384-bit memory bus for 24 GB.

Kopite7kimi's leak could have a different connotation, that much like the RTX 30-series "Ampere" and RTX 40-series "Ada," NVIDIA might not use JEDEC-standard GDDR7 on all product segments, and might co-engineer an exclusive standard with a DRAM company with memory bus signaling and power management technologies most optimal to its graphics architecture. It co-developed the GDDR6X with Micron Technology to do exactly this. GDDR7 comes with data-rates as high as 32 Gbps, which will be the top speed for the first round of GDDR7 chips that come out toward the end of 2024, heading into 2025. The second round of GDDR7 chips slated for late-2025 going into 2026, could go as fast as 36 Gbps. This is similar to how the first GDDR6 chips were 14-16 Gbps, and the next round did 18-20 Gbps.

ASRock Announces Radeon RX 7900 GRE Series Graphics Cards

ASRock, the leading global motherboard, graphics card and mini PC manufacturer, today launched the new Steel Legend and Challenger series graphics cards based on the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE GPU. The new ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE Series graphics cards are built on the groundbreaking AMD RDNA 3 architecture, featuring redesigned compute units, second-generation AMD Infinity Cache and ray tracing technologies, and increased AI throughput. They also feature the AMD Radiance Display Engine with support for DisplayPort 2.1, full AV1 encoding and are optimized for high-performance, high-resolution 4K/1440p gaming, streaming and content creation applications.

The new ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE Series graphics cards are equipped with high-speed 16 GB GDDR6 memory at 18 Gbps, and are pre-overclocked to deliver higher levels of performance. In addition, the AMD Radiance Display Engine provides 12 bit-per-channel color for up to 68 billion colors for incredible color accuracy. ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE Series graphics cards also support various ASRock exclusive features, including the Striped Ring/Axial Fan, Air Deflecting Fin, Ultra-fit Heatpipe, Metal Backplate, and Polychrome SYNC technology to provide great cooling efficiency, solid construction and fancy ARGB lighting effects. With these exclusive features, ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE Series graphics cards are premium choices for 4K/2K gamers and creators.

Modders Pull Off 16GB GeForce RTX 2080 Upgrade, Modded Card Posts 8% Performance Boost

Brazilian tech enthusiast Paulo Gomes, in association with Jefferson Silva, and Ygor Mota, successfully modded an EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 "Turing" graphics card to 16 GB. This was done by replacing each of its 8 Gbit GDDR6 memory chips with ones that have double the density, at 16 Gbit. Over the GPU's 256-bit wide memory bus, eight of these chips add up to 16 GB. The memory speed was unchanged at 14 Gbps reference, as were the GPU clocks.

The process of modding involves de-soldering each of the eight 8 Gbit chips, clearing out the memory pads of any shorted pins, using a GDDR6 stencil to place replacement solder balls, and then soldering the new 16 Gbit chips onto the pad under heat. Besides replacing the memory chips, a series of SMD jumpers need to be adjusted near the BIOS ROM chip, which lets the GPU correctly recognize the 16 GB memory size. The TU104 silicon by default supports higher density memory, as NVIDIA uses this chip on some of its professional graphics cards with 16 GB memory, such as the Quadro RTX 5000.

Moore Threads Releases MTT S30 Entry-level GPU

Moore Threads, the Chinese company aiming to build a contemporary PC GPU family indigenous to China, formally introduced the MTT S30, an entry-level GPU. Given the performance positioning of the company's flagship MTT S80 GPU even with its recent performance doubling driver update, one can conclude that the MTT S30 isn't quite a gaming GPU. It has a quarter of the unified shaders of the MTT S80, 1/6th its FP32 throughput, and a quarter of its memory size; which means the GPU really is an iGPU replacement that accelerates one or more high-resolution displays for non-gaming productivity workloads, and perhaps some media acceleration.

The Moore Threads MTT S30 features 1,024 unified shaders, an unknown number of tensor accelerators, a 1.30 GHz GPU clock, and 4 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 128-bit wide memory bus. The reference design card is single-slot, half-height, and draws all its power from the PCIe slot, given that its power draw is rated at just 40 W. This card has just two display connectors—HDMI and D-Sub. It features a PCI-Express 4.0 x8 host interface.
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